ISLAMABAD: In a landmark step towards institutional development in the country, the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday decided to address the issue of the politicisation of the civilian bureaucracy that has plagued the civil service structure of the country and has turned government servants almost into personal servants of their political masters.
This development has sent an immediate sense of optimism among the members of the civilian bureaucracy, who hope that the Supreme Court would help rid the civil services from the worst form of politicisation that results in bad governance, poor performance, corruption, inefficiency, flawed policies and non-resolution of the problems faced by people at large.
While hearing the Waheeda Shah case, the honorable Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry decided to address the greater issue of civil servants’ protection from external influences in their transfers, appointmentsand promotions. Anita Turab has recently approached the Chief Justice of Pakistan in Waheeda Shah slapping case for a remedy to the humiliation impacting the entire civil services and law-abiding citizens. She had sought from the Chief Justice of Pakistan that instead of dealing with the Waheeda Shah incident in isolation, the core issues plaguing the entire civilian bureaucracy be addressed.
In her suo moto petition, she had sought the restoration of dignity of civil services and civil servants to enable them to play their part in the electoral process with utmost dignity and confidence. In this regard, she believed that ensuring security of tenure, apolitical merit based appointments and transparent promotions are a must.
“Extraneous influences, like political persuasions, threats, inducements and temptations must be eliminated. The incident of 25th February (Waheeda Shah slapping case) is a typical example of the present state of morale of the civil servants since shorn of any protection of law to ward off recourse to similar degradation,” she pleaded in her petition.
The politicisation of the civil bureaucracy is at an all-time high now, as the external influence in the bureaucratic affairs has reached an extent where the institution of civil services is about to crumble. The civil servants as demonstrated in Waheeda Shah case, are treated by the powerful and mighty as their personal servants.
The bureaucracy is faced with such a sorry state of affairs that the MPs and politicians are openly recommending the postings and transfers of their favourites. The dilemma is that the Prime Minister’s Secretariat at the centre and the Chief Minister’s Secretariats in the provinces are found generous in forwarding such recommendations, which are illegal under the rules, to the Establishment Division and other concerned federal and provincial agencies for implementation.
Sources said that though under the conduct rules inviting such an external influence in service matters is a clear-cut case of “misconduct” and liable to punishment, the fact of the matter is that the personal dossiers of a very large number of civil servants include “letter of recommendations” from politicians, MNAs and even party leaders. Such documents are ‘charge-sheet’ against the government servants but the Prime Minister’s Secretariat brazenly forwards them to the concerned department along with its own directives.
Because of whimsical postings and transfers of the civilian bureaucracy, the tenure of posting has also lost its sanctity. At all levels including even the federal secretaries, the government servants are removed and replaced within weeks and months of their appointment without assigning any reason in writing but merely for not acceding to the unlawful commands of their superiors and rulers.
Last year’s abrupt removal of Sohail Ahmad, the then establishment secretary; Hussain Asghar, the FIA official who was fairly and honestly probing Hajj scam and had even summoned prime minister’s son; Zafar Qureshi, the former Additional DG FIA, who was investigating NICL case; Tariq Khosa, the former DG FIA who was fairly probing Pakistan Steel, are a few of the publicly known premature transfers.
Although the above case made headlines in the media, such victimization of the civil servants is a routine and every day affair. Only recently an honest and competent DMG officer Dr Ehtasham Anwar, additional deputy commissioner Islamabad, was verbally asked not to attend his office because he was unable to entertain unlawful command of the rulers.
It has also been recently reported that PSO to prime minister recently conveyed to the Establishment Division the premier’s son desire to give choice posting to three of his favourite bureaucrats. Some in the ED were surprised to see the surprise arrival of Abdul Qadir Gilani’s chit in the Establishment Division.
The officers recommended for their choice postings include some controversial officials, who were sidetracked by the Punjab government for their controversial reputation. Besides these three postings, the junior Gilani, an MPA, is said to have also maneuvered quite a few other key postings including in the Islamabad capital police.
Just recently the apex court while hearing the suo moto case of Karachi killings, was told by no less than the top provincial official, IGP Sindh, that at least 40 percent of the Karachi police comprised of people linked with political parties. The Sindh IGP also said that his hands were tied to make his choice transfers within the police that otherwise directly fall under his domain.
The politicisation of the civilian bureaucracy is considered one of the major factors in the bad performance of the government departments including ministries and divisions, poor service delivery, deteriorating law and order situation etc, as the officers are generally posted on the basis of their political connections instead of merit and performance.
Additionally as has happened in the case of Sohail Ahmad, Zafar Qureshi and Hussain Asghar, the officers who stick to principles and rule of law and ignore the unlawful orders of their political masters are abruptly removed, made OSDs and even suspended and punished. Some are even slapped and badly hurt.



SC decides to address politicisation of bureaucracy